WEST CHESTER – A crumbling wall at the front of the Charles A. Melton Arts and Education Center has a new life after a mural depicting the center’s past and future was finished earlier this week.

For the past few weeks, artist Carrie Kingsbury of Promiseland Murals has been working to transform the wall facing Market Street into a mural that represents the history of the center and its future plans.

The final piece was completed early this week after about two weeks of work and will be shown off at the center’s Community Day on Aug. 17.

According to Kenneth Winston, executive director of the center, the wall has been something that the board and those at the center have wanted to fix for a long time.

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“I started here in 2010, and one of the very first things I said was ‘that wall has to get fixed’,” said Winston. “My entire philosophy is that this historically prominent institution was a big canvas waiting for artists.”

Winston said that the new board, along with new staff members, wanted to convey to the community that the center has been growing and expanding its offerings.

“It’s a depiction of everything that’s happened over the last four years,” said Winston.

According to the center, its mission is “to contribute to the quality of life for all people of the greater West Chester community by continuing its long commitment of providing educational, recreational, cultural and civic services.”

Construction on the borough community center began in 1934 and was renamed after Charles A. Melton in 2004. Melton served as director of the center from 1966 to 1980 and is remembered for his contributions to the Civil Rights movement and improving race relations in the borough.

The mural features founder, Dr. Leslie Pinckney Hill, as well as Melton and Bertha Williams Porter, a longtime volunteer in the center’s daycare center. The mural also shows some of the offerings of the center, including images of the center’s music, theater, basketball and education programs.

Winston said that the mural will help the outside of the building match the inside, which the center has been trying to “modernize” for the past few years. Winston said that after renovating the center’s basketball courts, and the ongoing push for the new pool to be finished, fixing up the wall felt like the last piece of the puzzle.

“The mural caps off all of the stuff we’ve done inside,” said Winston.

Winston noted that the community helped to contribute to the mural, with the West Chester Area Education Association donating $3,000 and ACE Hardware donating the paint. Since the mural is nearly 25 feet tall, Knox Equipment Rentals donated a lift for Kingsbury to use while she painted.

To make up the difference of the estimated $5,000 cost for the mural, the center is selling $10 raffle tickets for residents to win the original painting of the mural. The drawing of the tickets will be held at the center’s Community Day.

Kingsbury said that she helped to design the mural after she was given a list and photos of some of the elements the center wanted incorporated. She said that the center gave her “free range” to use different styles and techniques on the mural.

“I was able to do more cartoon, impressionist and other styles. I’m really running the gamut of different styles. I got to be as colorful as I’d like to be.”

Kingsbury, who started Promiseland Murals in 1999, specializes in community murals and has worked in a lot of public spaces including public high schools around the area and many hospitals in Philadelphia.

Kingsbury noted that she did receive some help from a couple students in the beginning stages of the painting, including her 12-year-old son who she said was “mentoring and helping the other children” since he’s been helping his mom with murals since he was very young.

She noted that the mural represented all of the good that the center does for the community.

“I just like how giving they are and what they’re doing,” Kingsbury said. “The mural will raise people’s morale and cheer them up and make them happy. It’s very colorful and happy and really shows what the community center does.”

Follow Daily Local News staff writer Kendal Gapinski on Twitter at @KendalGapinski and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/KendalAGapinski.

About the Author

Kendal Gapinski is the Daily Local News reporter covering events in the Whiteland and Uwchlan areas. She is a 2013 graduate from American University. Reach the author at kgapinski@dailylocal.com
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